Meanwhile, in automotive news:

Fading football star Stefan Effenberg is used to shooting off his oversized mouth, but not having to pay for it: A court in Braunschweig sentenced him on Wednesday to a EUR100,000 [US$81,000] fine for denigrating a police officer – a crime in Germany, where fines are linked to income. His latest brush with the law came on Feb. 19, when he was pulled over for speeding: Two cops heard him call one of them an “Arschloch” (asshole), though Stefan swears he only wished him “sch?n Abend noch” (enjoy the rest of the evening). For some strange reason the court chose to take the word of the two Polizisten over that of the 35-year-old Effenberg …

Effenberg, of course, is a graduate of Bayern Munich, the top-ranked soccer club, where it seems that to really belong you have to cheat on your wife and get caught doing it by photographers (Claudia Strunz was even a teammate’s wife, presumably earning our boy double the points).

Sounds like Effi Steffi as we like to call him tried to use the old South Park trick:

Stan: Well, we can’t do anything for now, that fat bitch won’t let us.
Ms. Crabtree: What did you say?
Stan: Uh, I said that rabbits eat lettuce.
Ms. Crabtree: Oh. Well, yes, they certainly do.

and:

Ms. Crabtree: I SAID SIT DOWN!
Stan: Yeah, whatever ya fat bitch!
Ms. Crabtree: What did you say?
Stan: I said I have a bad itch.
Ms. Crabtree: Oh.

Hopefully this can help Germany solve its Maastricht-criteria-busting deficit.